Colonials under Siege
by Evan Vave
Summary: 280 Years after the Stargate is discovered the Alliance detect an emergency transmission from an Ancient Outpost. After an expedition reveals the origin to be the 12 Colonies of Kobol, a detailed analysis prove to the Alliance that the Colonials are not ready for First Contact. An intelligence agent is left on Caprica to monitor the Colonies, but what happens when Cylons show up?
1. Chapter 1

Present Day – Caprica

Today should have been a normal day, just like any other. Aaron had decided to go down to the market and do some shopping for dinner, but something about today just felt off. It was an intuition he had inherited from his father, something big was going to happen, he could just feel it in his bones. Brushing back the feeling in his gut, Aaron paid for his shopping and stepped out onto the street. Caprica never felt like home to him, it was too industrial, to smog ridden. For a species with technology this advanced, the Colonials did little to employ safeguards against pollution. In the Alliance, worlds were powered by ZPM's, an unlimited power source that was 100% pure and clean. He couldn't help marvel that a single ZPM could power all of Caprica for a thousand years without a single ounce of pollutant.

Rounding a corner on his way home, something odd caught Aarons attention. A woman, in a red dress with a distressed look on her face was rapidly marching away from the local star port. A few moments later and a piercing cry filled the air, a woman screaming that someone had killed her baby.

"This is it" Aaron thought to himself, knowing full well that his fathers genes were kicking him to action, and that this woman had something to do with the death of the child.

Dropping his groceries Aaron made to follow the woman closely. He made sure he could not be seen, going so far as to employ his personal cloaking field the moment no one was looking in his direction.

Aaron followed the woman and moved so close to her that he could hear her breathing. As she passed out of the main roads and into a small side street he watched her remove a small device from her bag.

"All is going as planned, I'm heading for Guias now, that is where I will meet my end" she whispered into the device.

Aaron eyes grew wide with realization that something major was about to happen. He searched his memories from the endless rolls of new media he had observed, and cross referenced it with the word Guias. Soon the image of an interview with Guias Baltar appeared in his mind and sitting next to him was this woman in Red. Guias Baltar, the foremost expert in everything technological, working for the defense department and implementing a new navigational program that was meant to improve ship security. This was bad, Aaron knew it, and he had to get to the bottom of what was happening.

Aaron crept up to the woman and placed a hand on her neck. Instantly the woman gasped as the invisible hand touched her neck, but she had no time to scream as she felt a jolt of electricity pass through her and soon she was unconscious.

Aaron kneeled over the pacified woman and with a quick thought, ordered the ASV Weir to transport the pair to his home.

Several hours had passed since Aaron appeared in the basement of his home, he had strapped the woman to an examination table and locked in her place with trinium restraints, his initial scans of the woman showed that he would need them. Overhead a floating probe (an enhanced version of the Keno's encountered by the Destiny expedition) recorded the encounter.

Six's mind was foggy as it regained consciousness, at first she thought she had died and was waking up in a resurrection tub, but it didn't take long for her eyes to focus and realize she was strapped to some kind of examination table with a darkened figure looming over her, and a floating orb like device above her. "Who are you" she asked defiantly, garnering as much strength as she could in an attempt to break the restraints.

The room suddenly filled with light and the rugged outline of a rather handsome looking form took shape. "I believe the question here, should be what are you?" the figure spoke with a strong and demanding voice. The voice spoke with ere of control and strength the betrayed its age.

"You're the one who abducted me" she spat back in retort "you have no idea who you are messing with. If you're going to kill me, kill me now and be done with it"

"And sentence you to oblivion" the man replied with an eerie smile spreading across his lips.

"Oblivion" six laughed and then noted something in the man's eyes, a secret, a knowing glance almost as if he knew why she wanted to die.

"I'm not of this world" the man whispered "and neither are you"

The words sent a cold chill down six's spine, and reactively, she forced all of her strength into her muscles in an attempted to break the shackles.

"Those shackles are made of an alloy not even your enhanced strength could break" the man spoke "and I wouldn't try to kill myself if I were you, I've disabled your neural transmitter, you're now as mortal as everyone else on this planet"

Sixes eyes grew wide with shock and fear, _how could this be happening_ she thought to herself.

As if reading her mind the figure replied "Don't worry, I am only here to observe, and I must admit you make a curious subject. You are organic, yet synthetic, enhanced strength, and immortal to a point. I've never seen this kind of technology employed to such a degree, most artificial beings we have encountered choose to be either entirely technological or entirely biological, you seem to have taken both paths"

"You have encountered another artificial beings?" Six questioned, her curiosity peaked.

The man nodded "I myself am the progeny of an artificial being and a human" he smiled, shocking the woman once again "I know you are a Cylon, and I know how your entire species must feel" the man comforted.

"We only want to be loved" Six replied honestly "it is Gods only commandment"

The man smiled, his smile evaporating the fear Six had felt. He moved his hands down towards her restraints and in a second the restraints melted away. "The Colonials hatred runs deep, but you have brothers out there" the man pointed up towards the stars "who would accept you with open arms"

Every primal instinct in Six's body told her to run, told her to get the hell out of here and never look back, but the man's words pushed deep into Six's mind. Out there was another world, a world that would love and accept the Cylon's.

And then everything changed as both Six's and Aaron's entire world shattered.

_Warning emergency transport in progress_ a voice called out from nowhere breaking the moment that was being shared between the two. In a flash Aaron disappeared and reappeared aboard the ASV Weir.

"What the hell just happened" Aaron demanded. Before him the view screen changed to reveal a low orbit image of Caprica where almost 60 Cylon base ships had emerged and begun launching missiles at the planets surface.

_Nuclear ordinance detected_ the voice trailed off as massive mushroom clouds began to rise from the impact sites.

With a thought Aaron's mind summoned Six from the planet, transporting her directly onto the bridge standing next to Aaron.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Aaron shouted, his anger permeating the bridge and causing Six to stagger back slightly. She turned from Aaron with fear and was greeted with the sight of what her people had done. Entire cities had been eradicated, nothing but smoldering ruins.

The view then switched to one in orbit where several Battlestars had jumped in and begun launching fighters against the Attacking ships. Unfortunatley the moment the vipers and Battlestars got within range of Cylons, their entire power systems shut down leaving them entirely vulnerable. In seconds the Colonial ships where wiped from existence, unable to fight back.

"Computer, what just happened" Aaron demanded, anger spreading throughout his body.

"Viral databurst detected, Battlestar firewall has been compromised internally via the navigation sub systems" the computer reported.

"Locate David now!" Aaron ordered and then turned to Six "If anything happens to David, you have no idea the wrath I will bring down upon your people"

Six stood there in stunned silence, feeling the comfort of the words Aaron had uttered mere minutes ago dissolve. The people who would have accepted her and her race, would now seek vengeance.

"Transponder detected" The computer replied plotting an intercept course and moving the ship to the location out near the edge of the star system.

David was part of the CAP that were flying escort formation with the Galactica and had been dispatched back towards Picon when the first instance of an attack was reported.

Right now David sat silent, his life flashing before his eyes as he watched hundreds of missiles streak towards his disabled viper. There was a sudden bang and searing pain, before everything went white.

"Transport complete" the computers voice announced and Aaron looked down to see David sprawled on the floor before him. His chest was shredded, fragments of his canopy were lodged in various parts of his body and blood was pooling on the floor. A massive fragment had impaled David's head causing volumes of blood to poor down the man's face.

Aaron dove down and held onto David as hard as he could. Where he touched he ordered his nanites to repair the outward injuries, stemming the massive blood loss. But Aaron knew it was hopeless, the body could be repaired but the fragment that was lodged in David's head would have lasting damage. With a thought David's body vanished and reappeared within a medical pod positioned to the rear of the bridge. Aaron walked up to the pod, tears flowing down his cheeks his heart breaking as the computer reported the extent of the damage.

"Neural pathways have been compromised, estimated chance of recovery, 27.3 percent" the voice said finally after much scanning.

Things had happened so fast that Six was still standing in shock, the computers voice finally brought her out of her stupor and she stepped to the side of Aaron.

"I am so sorry" she spoke aloud, her voice filled with genuine emotion she had never truly felt before.

Aaron looked up from the stasis pod, his eyes filled with anger and pain, his hands quickly darted towards Six's neck and with little effort he lifted her into the air. "You're sorry" he raged, chocking the life from her body "You've killed billions of people in the blink of an eye, and YOU ARE SORRY?"

Six could feel her life draining from her body, Aaron's strength was too much for her and the more she struggled the stronger his grip became. She knew she did not have long left in the world, and with her ability to resurrect disabled, she felt fear, real fear.

Aaron looked into Six's eyes and could see and feel the terror in her eyes. The rage and fury behind his grip demanded blood, but then a voice called out from behind him "Son, you cannot do this" the voice uttered.

Six knew she was going to die, and in the final moments of her existence she began to hallucinate. Behind Aaron she saw what could only be described as an angle, its wings of pure white light radiating out and the serene face radiated what she could only describe as love. And then she heard the words, the words that caused Aaron to release her.

Six fell to the ground, panting, recovering, while still looking to the angel. Aaron had turned towards the angel and the angel was now embracing him, its wings of pure energy wrapping around the man it had called her son.

"He's gone" Aaron sobbed into his mother's arms as Weir took human form to embrace her son.

"There is still hope my son, hope for you, hope for David, hope for the Cylons, and hope for the Colonials" she whispered before vanishing completely.

Aaron turned toward six and kneeled down next to her struggling form. He had clearly crushed part of her wind pipe and she was having extreme difficulty breathing. He placed an open hand on her neck and ordered his nanites to repair her neck.

Six felt all the pain vanish instantly and her breathing restored as Aarons hands hovered over her neck. She was ready to die, in fact her thoughts raced over the atrocities her people had just committed and she felt that she deserved to die. When Aaron had moved his hands to her neck once again she was prepared for the end, what she was not prepared for was the healing he had provided her.

"Thank you" she stammered as Aaron removed his hand.

Aaron still felt angry, but managed a small nod towards her in recognition of the thanks. His attention then turned back towards the screen. The massive wall now split into 12 sections each showing a view of one of the Colonial planets. The damage was unmistakable, billions upon billions were dead, and more died as each second passed. The colonial fleet was being decimated at every turn.

Civilian vessels appeared to have been massing at a single point and Aaron quickly overlaid cylon positions with the surviving fleet's location. They had little more than 12 hours before a Cylon recon would be close enough to track them down.

"Why are you people doing this" Aaron turned to Six, fury returning to his eyes.

Tear's rolled down Six's cheeks, pain, genuine pain showed on her face "We thought we were doing God's will, that this was the only way we could return to our home"

"Committing genocide in the name of a God, oh what a noble way to keep your hands clean" Aaron spat sarcastically. "I've never seen this level of death and destruction. 53 Billion dead, millions more dyeing every minute, all in the name of a God. I'll tell you something about my people. We have fought, we have spilled blood, we have taken down entire galaxies of parasites and horror's, but never have we claimed our actions to be divine, we've always taken responsibility for what we have done. When my people hear of what has happened here today, your people will answer for what they have done"

Six nodded in affirmation, the horror of what her people had done was paralyzing.

Aaron moved towards what appeared to be a control console, and soon the vessel was speeding towards the gathered civilian fleet. Meanwhile Aaron mentally filed a report and transmitted it back to Earth for action. He knew it would take a month for the transmission to reach earth and another month for a reply. In the meantime he would follow Alliance conventions in regards to genocidal acts, and do everything in his power to protect the survivors.

Twenty minutes passed as the ship sped swiftly towards the Civilian ships. Six had remained silent for the entire time standing and staring the images of the planets as mushroom clouds seemed to stop.

"They've stopped nuking the planets" Aaron commented, a hint of confusion in his voice.

Six nodded "We never intended to completely annihilate the Colonials. Right now the base stars will be launching millions of raiders to the planet's surface, they will begin tracking down the survivors and capturing them"

"Why" Aaron asked.

Six closed her eyes, not sure if she should reveal their true intention. Quickly her mind raced as she calculated the best mix of truths and half-truths to tell this man.

Aaron could see the gears turning in Six's mind, see her mind attempting to fabricate a story that would placate him. But it would not work. Aaron bound across the room as quick as lightning, and before Six could open her eyes she felt some stab into her fore-head.

Aaron found himself in a forest, and in the distance he could hear the sound of water. He had expected to find himself in her memories, an advantage inherited from his Ashuran heritage which made his work as an intelligence officer far easier. But he had never seen a mental construct like this, it was so involved, as though the Cylon's lived in their own reality of existence. Aaron walked towards the sound of water and soon found himself looking down at a stream. Kneeling down at the waters edge, Aaron knew something was not quite right about this stream and as he peered over the edge he could see why. The water was not water, it was in fact silvery shreds of what could only be described as memories flowing down the endless river. Aaron placed his hand in the water and the memories flowed by giving him glimpses of past events, not only from the life span of this Cylon, but from other Colonials and Cylons.

"It's amazing isn't it" a voice stated from behind Aaron, it was Six.

"So this is the mind of a Cylon. Is it the same with every Cylon, or are you unique" Aaron questioned.

Six smiled, for so long she hand wanted to share this experience with someone other than another Cylon. The humans never quite understood the concept of the stream, and here was another being, looking down into the stream of consciousness, and seeing the true existence of the Cylon race.

"This is what we are, this is what we all see" she stated softly and walked over to the river and plucked a memory from the river, holding it in her hand "If you look close enough you will come to know that these are not simply memories, they are fragments"

"Fragments" Aaron pushed.

"Yes Fragments, of our past, our present, and if you look close enough, our future" she smiled holding the memory fragment up to Aaron.

Aaron looked into the memory fragment and what he saw scared him. The image was of Earth, his Earth as seen from high orbit where a massive fleet of ships were engaging a swarm of Xarnath.

Aaron broke the connection to the Cylon and stumbled back "That's impossible" he cried.

"It is very possible" Six replied "The stream sometimes has fragments that we cannot understand, until it comes to pass"

"Then you see the future" Aaron continued "Was that the future I saw?"

Six shook her head "It is only one possible future" she explained "within the stream we see what has happened, what is happening, and what could come to pass. It is only a foreshadowing of things to come, and it is because of this that very few of us dare to spend any length of time in the stream, it can drive one insane. It is often why I feel most sorry for our hybrids, they live in the stream and it has driven them insane"

Aaron turned from the woman and looked back at the images of the 12 worlds "You haven't answered my question, why are you tracking down the humans"

Six's eyes grew soft, sharing the stream with Aaron had created some kind of bond with the man "There are only 12 models" she uttered softly.

"I don't understand" Aaron replied.

"Human form Cylons, there are only 12 models, and 5 of them are unknown to us" she continued.

Aaron was puzzled "Why would you only build 12 models?" he questioned.

"It was not our choice, we were created this way. 12 models, but many copies. For years we have tried to procreate, to have children, but for all our medical and technological sciences we have been unable" she pressed.

"And so you're capturing the humans, to experiment on them?" Aaron finished for her.

Six nodded, clearly ashamed of what her people were doing.

"Firewall purge program complete, ready for deployment" The computers voice interrupted the pair.

"Deploy" Aaron ordered, breaking away from six and returning to his console.

"What are you deploying?" Six questioned.

"It's a little late, 72 percent of the Colonial forces have been decimated, but at least 28 percent of the fleet will now have a fighting chance" Aaron explained "I'm purging your virus from their systems"

"Deployment complete" the computer responded after barely a second of using the cluster wide surveillance network to beam the purge program into every Colonial ship.

One of the view screens changed to show a Battle group in orbit of Tauron Engaging 2 Basestars. Initially the Basestar's had taken little notice of Battle group and sent only a handful of nuclear capable raiders to take out the group. However, the battle changed rapidly as the virus failed, and the Battle group destroyed the Raiders with Ease. The Basestars had moved into a position for planetary occupation and its raider contingent was on the planet's. Without the raider screen, the basters were easy pickings for the Battle group that contained 2 Mecury class battlestars and a Wartstar. Within moments the first real battle of this war took place and Basestars crumbled under the fire of the battle group.

Six flinched as she saw two base stars explode into fireballs, though she knew there would be no real losses as her people would simply resurrect, it still hurt to see so many raiders die, after all, they too were alive.

As things were looking up for the battle group, 7 more base stars jumped into orbit and immediately began turning the quick victory into a fight for survival.

Aaron opened a channel to battle group, and urged them to retreat as he was tracking a further 5 Cylon base stars moving in to flank their position. He quickly uploaded jump coordinates of the civilian fleet and pleaded that they jump.

The battle continued for several minutes, and it was not until one of the Mecury battlestars took a half dozen nukes that quick broke its armor, that the battle group finally jumped away.

Several more minutes passed before the ASV Weir finally came upon the civilian fleet. Aaron watched as several of the ships began docking with each other, transferring as many civilians from the non FTL capable vessels to the FTL capable ships as possible. Aaron also noted that one of the ships in the formation had been renamed Colonial One and claimed to have the President of the Colonies aboard.

Aaron quickly hailed Colonial one "Colonial One, this is Commander Aaron Shepherd of the Alliance Science Vessel Elizabeth Weir. I am inbound to your formation and will be transmit directly aboard Colonial One in twenty seconds" he announced then turned to Six who was still standing staring at the monitors.

"You're coming with me" Aaron announced grabbing Six's attention.

"Coming to Colonial One?" Six replied "The Colonial's would kill me if they knew what I was"

"Don't worry we aren't actually going anywhere" Aaron explained throwing a polished white stone in Six's direction.

Six caught the stone with a massively confused looked "How can I be coming with you if we're not going anywhere. You Tau'ri are a confusing people"

Aaron gestured for Six to place the stone on her chest, and she followed his instructions allow the stone to sit weightlessly clinging to her chest. "Just remember, nothing can hurt he" Aaron smiled before pressing a button on his console.

Immediately the bridge disappeared and Six found herself standing in what appeared to be a Colonial passenger linear with Aaron at her side, and shocked gasps from everyone around her.

Apollo received the communication from the bridge and did not know what to expect, but when two figures just appeared on the bridge, and one of them his best friends partner, he didn't know what to think.

"Aaron" Apollo gasped as he moved forward to hug the man, he then stumbled as his arms passed straight through Aaron causing the image to ripple "What the frak" he shouted.

Aaron looked at Apollo "I'm not really here, I'm aboard my vessel, this is only a holographic projection" Aaron explained to the crowd in general most of who were cowering in their seats. He then turned to the secretary of education who most recently had been promoted to president. Madame President, my name is Aaron Shepherd, I am an intelligence officer for the Alliance" he announced.

The woman just starred at Aaron with shock and confusion.

"Alliance?" Apollo questioned stepping up beside the president.

Aaron looked to Apollo "The Alliance is a union of worlds very far away from here. We first visited your world 10 years ago, at the time we felt you were not ready for first contact, and so I was assigned here to watch you, waiting for a time when you would be ready. Unfortunately the Cylon attack has forced me to make contact far sooner than we would have liked" Aaron explained.

All around the bridge there was nothing but shocked and somewhat scared faces, which was quite odd as most of these people were press.

"Wait a minute, so this whole time you've just been observing us?' Apollo almost shouted "What about David, what about our friendship?"

Aarons heart tugged as he thought about David's body sitting in a medical pod. It would take weeks for the neural reconstruction to complete, with only a small chance of it succeeding. Six saw the sadness in Aaron's eyes and couldn't quite bare it "He loves David can't you see that" she stated looking Apollo fiercely in the eyes. "The first thing he did was attempt to save him, and even now David's aboard his ship in critical condition, and could very well die, and its breaking his heart" she defended.

Apollo took a step back and the fierceness in Six's eyes.

"And who may I ask are you" The president finally spoke up.

Aaron regained his composure "Who she is it not a concern right now, saving your people is" he announced.

"How can we save my people" the President questioned.

"I've broken the virus that infected your ships systems, about 28 percent of your fleet is still intact. You need to gather your forces and your civilian ships, and you need to leave this system." Aaron announced.

"Leave our home?" one of the reporters questioned.

Aaron turned to the reporter "Your worlds are dead, at last count the death toll was at 63 billion lives, there is nothing left for you here"

"He's right" Apollo spoke up "we have to gather as many civilian ships as we can, and leave"

"What about your people, the Alliance, can they help us" the President asked hopefully.

Aaron shook his head "I've sent a report to the alliance, but it will be two months before I get a reply. Even if we did send ships it would take at least a Year for them to arrive"

"Then we should head towards your space" Apollo questioned.

"My world is very far away, your ships would never reach it in your lifespan" Aaron replied, shocking everyone.

While Aaron had been speaking with the President and Apollo Six took the time to scan the room and her eyes rested upon someone that shocked her. It was another Cylon, model 4, she quickly leaned in and whispered something into Aaron's ear.

Aaron bolted around and pointed at the Presidents Aid and in a flash of light the man disappeared shocking everyone in the room.

"What the frak just happened" Apollo yelled.

"He was a Cylon" six answered "The Cylon's have taken human form" she uttered, dropping a massive bombshell on the colonials.

"And would you know that" the president finally questioned.

"Because, she is a Cylon too" Aaron answered for her, amid gasps and murmurs from everyone.

Apollo raised his gun and pointed it at Six, forgetting that this was only a holographic projection. "Put away your gun Apollo" Aaron stated.

"You just said she was a fraking Cylon, a fraking Cylon that has destroyed 60 billion people!" he raged turning off the safety.

"She is also just a hologram like me, if you pull that trigger you will punch a hole in the hull and kill a lot of innocent people, including yourself" Aaron stated.

Apollo processed what Arron was saying and returned his gun to his holster. "You're working with a Cylon" he yelled.

Aaron nodded "I believe her, and I believe in her" he replied.

"What did you do the other Cylon, did you kill him?" the President questioned.

Aaron shook his head "If I were to kill him, he would simply download into a new body and the Cylons would know everything that just transpired here"

"Then what will you do with him?" Apollo questioned.

"I will remove his neural transmitter, stop his ability to resurrect. Perhaps being mortal will give him a new perspective upon his existence" Aaron stated, then turned back to the President. "Send out your signal, order every ship in the system to some place safe…" Aaron paused has his mind raced through the sensor network, and he instantly realized the safest place he could protect these people was Ragnor Anchorage. The bottle neck at the entrance to the storm would allow him to buy these people time as they prepaired for the journey. "Ragnor Anchorage, have every ship you encounter go there, I will protect the entrance and stop any Cylon attack" he assured them.

With that Aaron ended the transmission, he then used the sensor network to transmit a targeted signal to every colonial ship in the fleet to converge on Ragnor Anchorage, that they would find safety there.

* * *

As the hours passed Aaron paced the bridge, it had been 4 hours since he had escorted the fleet to the Gas Giant and positioned his ship at the very entrance. So far over 200 civilian ships had made their way to the Anchorage, along with at least 3 battlestar groups that had decided to take up a position near the entrance as well, in order to help protect the civilians.

"Why are you pacing?" Six questioned, she had been grateful that Aaron had somehow materialized a sofa on the bridge, for her to sit on. He had also supplied her with food and a selection of beverages, however she had not seen him eat this entire time.

"The Cylon's are on their way, I can see them, 7 base stars will appear shortly, and another 30 base stars will appear over the hour" Aaron explained.

"You're afraid you won't be able to protect them?" Six questioned, still confused as to how he intended to protect the Colonials. As far as she could tell this was a science vessel, not a military ship.

Aaron shook his head "protecting them is easy, protecting those still on their way, that will be difficult" he stated.

Aaron had already deployed a dozen satellites in a spherical pattern around the entire anchorage. These satellites would soon generate an impenetrable force field that would protect everyone inside. Unfortunately, as a side effect, any ships wishing to enter after the shield was established, would be stuck outside. The shields permeated subspace, which meant that hyperspace windows and space folding would not be possible either. Unfortunately this would leave over 400 Civilians vessels, that were already on their way to the Anchorage, unable to enter.

* * *

Admiral Cain paced the bridge of the Pegasus, as the highest ranking military commander, she had been placed in charge of the Military, or at least what was left of the military. The battle star groups that had made it to the Anchorage were in shambles, only three Mecury Class battle stars were fully operational, 11 others were in various states of disrepair having taken multiple nuclear impacts. Two of the 3 War stars were crippled beyond repair, and the 3rd was barely holding together, they were essentially floating tombs at this point.

"Sir, the fleet captains have arrived, and so has the President" her aide announced.

Cain nodded and made her way to the briefing room.

"As you know, as the highest ranking member of the fleet I have taken command of all military assets" Cain announced to the gathered group. "I want battle ready reports from all ships in the next four hours, we're going to hit the Cylons back, and we're going to hit them hard" Cain announced, clearly shocking the gathered Captains.

"Admiral, this war is over" Laura Rosaline, now President of the 12 Colonies spoke out "67 billion Dead, our fleet decimated, we lost this war in the opening minutes of the attack" she punctuated "our only hope now is to leave" she finished.

Cain looked to the president with distaste in her mouth. She was not one to stand down from a fight, not when she still had functional battle stars. However, she was also not one to break the chain of command, and at this moment Laura was legally and technically her Commander and Chief.

"So you would have us running for the stars, waiting for the Cylons to track us down and take us out" Cain questioned, not willing to give up on the Colonies.

"We only need to run until the Alliance can send help" the President explained.

Cain snorted "the Alliance, you believe in this fairy tale?" she retorted.

At that moment Aaron appeared in the room, he had been monitoring the fleet proceedings and felt this was a perfect moment to intervene "My people are not a fairytale" he replied shocking Cain as she had not seen this technology used before.

"You know, you haven't exactly told us what this alliance is, or where they are. How do we know you aren't part of some elaborate Cylon ploy?" Cain questioned.

Aaron did not like this woman, he looked to the center of the table where a flash of light deposited a small flat device. Moments later the device activated and projected a holographic image of the Milkyway galaxy above the table. "This is where the Alliance originated" Aaron explained "My father was born here" he uttered as the image zoomed in on Earth's location and revealed a startling blue world with what looked like an artificial ring surrounding it and thousands of satellites in orbit. "This is the home world of the Tau'ri, the founders of the Alliance. This is Earth"

The last words shocked everyone in the room, they were all speechless at the announcement of the planet's name. Earth had been a rumor, a dream, a legend. The colonials had searched for Earth for as long as reordered history but no evidence of its existence was ever found. And here of course was the reason, Earth was not in this Galaxy, it was somewhere out there, beyond the Colonial, or Cylon's grasp.

"You are the 13th tribe" one of the captains gasped.

"Yes, and no" Aaron replied "Our history is far greater, and different than you can imagine" he tried to explain.

"How different?" Laura questioned.

"Your scrolls are correct, but their history does not go back far enough. Life here did indeed begin out there, but life on Kobol also began out there" Aaron explained.

"Impossible" Cain spat, "everyone knows that humans evolved on Kobol"

A smile crept across Aaron's face "And I supposed you've been to Kobol, to confirm this?" he questioned.

"Of course not, no one has been to Kobol since the exodus" Cain retored.

"We have have" Aaron announced, leaving everyone in another state of shock.

A few seconds later Laura finally spoke "You've been to Kobol?"

Aaron nodded and the holographic projection changed to one of the local cluster of stars. It then zoomed out and a world within a dense cloud was highlighted and the image zoomed in to reveal Kobol. "We traveled to Kobol 10 years ago, trying to piece together your origin. We found a dead world, dead for over 5000 years with signs of radioactive decay in the atmosphere. We uncovered what you call the Tomb of Athenia, and discovered the journal entries from a race you call the Lords of Kobol"

"Our gods" one of the captains confirmed.

Aaron nodded "Yes, we have a name for them ourselves, in fact, they were the creators of my mother's race. We call them Alterrans, or Ancient ones, and Earth was their home many millions of years ago, long before my Fathers People, the Tau'ri evolved"

"So are you saying that we come from earth?" Cain questioned skeptically.

Aaron shook his head "No, though you are human, the Ancients, or Lords of Kobol as you call them, were seeders of life" The holographic image returned to the milky way galaxy and then zoomed out to show the local cluster of galaxies "During their early evolution, the Ancients sent out seed ships throughout the universe, these vessels terra formed billions of worlds across multiple galaxies" he explained.

"How many galaxies" Laura questioned.

Aaron turned to Laura "Our furthest expeditions place the number of galaxies in the millions"

Everyone gasped.

"Millions of galaxies, impossible, how far have your furthest expeditions traveled?" Laura questioned.

"4.8 Trillion light years from Earth, the Destiny expedition was launched 271 years ago, it took 42 years in hyperspace, consumed 21 ZPM's, however the expedition managed to recover the Destiny and her crew" Aaron explained. "The Destiny was an Ancient vessel launched close to 12 million years ago by our calculations. The amazing feat of engineering allowed the vessel to literally be powered by suns, as it raced for the edge of the universe" Aaron answered.

Adama had been processing what Aaron had just said when realization dawned on him and he had to ask the question "How far away is Earth?"

Aaron turned to Adama "300 million light years" he answered, noting the defeated looks on every face.

Cain looked at Aaron skeptically "You expect us to believe this, because of some fancy light show. Do you realize how ridiculous your claims sound to us?" she questioned.

Aaron stared directly into Cain's eyes "I don't care if you believe me or not, the simple fact is, this is the truth" he stated flatly "My people will arrive in this galaxy in 13 months, when we do, the Cylons will be brought to justice, my people don't look fondly upon genocide" he then turned back to the holographic generator which now displayed an image of the Pegasus galaxy, he nodded towards it "This is where your people came from. We call it the Pegasus galaxy, the Ancients fought a war here, and 10,000 years ago they evacuated your twelve worlds to Kobol. This is also where my mother's people were created, the Ashurans, I consider it as much my home as Earth is" he then turned to the group "the worlds you were evacuated from, they still have civilizations on them, civilizations that since the war, have begun to thrive. You have family there, family that would be more than willing to grant you refuge" Aaron smiled as the image of 12 worlds spun around the table. The Twelve original worlds of the Colonies had in fact become industrial powers within the Alliance, and had petitioned many times over the last 10 years for first contact with the Colonials. The Council, however, did not feel the Colonials were ready for the alliance, which had been why Aaron was deployed.

Several minutes passed since Aaron had left the gathered fleet captains and returned to the bridge of his ship. Though he had technically not left the ship, the holographic transmitters did a good job of making it feel like he had. Six was still seated on her couch, thoughts racing through her mind. Aaron knew that she had heard everything he had said, and was pretty sure she could piece together what the Colonials were asking.

"Is there a world for my people" she finally asked.

Aaron nodded, though he knew that for her part in the genocide, Six would pay a heavy price, as would every other Cylon that had participated. What would be left of their kind, would be accepted by at the very least, his mothers people, the Ashurans. Within the Alliance the Ashurans still wielded great power. Having the mind's and intellects, engineered directly from the Ancients, they were capable of understanding and upgrading technology that most humans could quite grasp. His people were scientists, scholars, teachers and inventors, they were the backbone of the Alliances technological might. He was sure that some way would be found, once the Cylons were rehabilitated of course, to download the Cylon consciousness into Ashuran bodies, allowing them to live freely amongst the alliance.


	2. Chapter 2

The Ragnor Anchorage was a massive space station, comprised of two wheel shaped segments that shared an axel, it was easily one of the largest constructs to ever be built. The storm that raged around the Anchorage had properties that damaged Cylon technology, the Anchorage was thus touted as a last refuge for resupplying and repairing battlestars. The Anchorage itself, had not been used in almost a decade. Now, it was to be the Colonials last respite before their great exodus from their Home Worlds.

At the heart of the Anchorage, nestled so deep within the super structure that only the utter destruction of the station would affect it, sat the control room. Because of its location, for the most part it had been forgotten, most military vessels chose to use the secondary control rooms near the primary airlocks.

Right now the Battlestar Galactica had birthed with Ragnor, along with almost a hundred smaller civilian ships. The Galactica was rearming its weapon systems, a process that would take several hours to complete, and while he was at it, Admiral Cain had seen fit to leave him in charge of repair operations for the civilian fleet.

Adama had barely docked with Ragnor before he was visited by Aaron by way of the life like holographic projection. The meeting had been short and to the point, Aaron had a plan in place to protect the fleet, but he needed the Anchorage's primary control room sealed off from the general public. Adama had his doubts initially, but eventually agreed with one caveat of his own, he wanted unrestricted access to the control room for himself, and his officers. Aaron had agreed, and vanished as quickly as he had arrived, no sooner had Aaron disappeared, than Adama had decided to head to the Control room himself and see what Aaron was up too.

* * *

Kara Thrace, call sign Starbuck, broke formation and sped towards the Alliance vessel. All Colonial military vessels were ordered to remain at least 10,000 km behind the alien ship, but something inside her, drew her towards the vessel.

As she inched ever closer to the vessel, she couldn't help but marvel at its elegance. The ship was small by colonial standards, less than 300 meters in length, its hull made of an unknown metallic alloy with a gloss finish. As she got closer she could see the tell tail signs that this was not a war ship. It's long slender profile revealed rows upon rows of windows, though the windows were tinted black and seemed to blend into the hull, they were undoubtedly structural weak points that no military vessel would ever have.

Kara flipped her viper 180 degrees and allowed it to continue to drift past the Alien ship, giving her a clear view of the front of the vessel. From this angle the ship looked like a predator, though clearly not designed as a war ship, she could tell that the architects had blended structural weakness with predatory grace. The sleek spear tipped head fell back towards a flattened curved rear that gave the ship the grace of a bird.

"Kara, what do you see?" hotdog questioned over the com link between their two vipers. Hotdog had chosen not to break formation and remained with the CAP, patrolling the invisible line the Aaron had designated as the boundary for the safe zone.

"It's beautiful" Kara stammered, her eyes immediately noticing movement across the exposed wings of the vessel. The full length of each wing seemed to split across the center and unfurled upwards exposing an extremely large and well hidden shuttle and launch bay in each wing. Each shuttle bay extended for over 50 meters across each wing, and Kara could see at least 2 cylinder shaped shuttles and 4 incredibly sleek looking predatory craft that were unmistakably fighters in each wing. "Frack hotdog, this thing's got fighters" she finally let out as a dozen cylindrical pods less than a meter in length detached from the shuttle bay floor and sped out of the ship, disappearing in less than a second. The acceleration was faster than anything she had ever seen, though one of the pods seemed to lag behind the rest, and came to a dead stop less than a kilometer behind the Alien vessel.

"You coming in?" A new voice questioned over the radio startling the pair.

"What?" Starbuck replied.

"I've got the doors open, you might as well come on in" The voice replied.

It only took a second for Kara to make up her mind before she stepped on the accelerator and headed towards the left wing. As she approached within 1000 meters of the shuttle bay she cut her primary engines and began reducing speed, however none of thrusters fired and her ship continued to speed towards the shuttle bay at a dangerous velocity.

Barely two seconds past, and Kara thought she was certainly going to die as ship hurtled into the shuttle bay at over five hundred meters per second. However at the very last second all inertia came to a Halt and what looked like a curtain of white light surrounded the viper.

"What the Frack was that" Kara shouted.

A laugh came over the speaker "Gives crash landings new meaning doesn't it" Aaron's voice boomed as the Viper was brought safely to the shuttle bay floor and the tremendous shuttle bay doors sealed shut leaving Kara in room filled with white light surrounded by unfamiliar vessels.

"Aaron I'm going to kill you" Kara laughed back "Now, how in hates to I get out of here"

"Follow the yellow brick road" Aaron quipped as he activated the guide lanes for Kara, showing her a path that would lead to the Bridge.

* * *

8 years ago Dianna Biers entire life had changed. For her part in the plan, Dianna had been tasked with infiltrating the Colonial news agency giving her access to the state of Colonial government. However two years into her mission, Dianna had an experience that would change her life forever.

Alone, on Caprica amongst a sea of Colonials, Dianna withdrew into herself, spending more and more time sitting on the banks of the stream and watching the fragments of past, present and future float by. She knew, like every other Cylon, that lingering within the stream was dangerous, that one could lose their mind. In fact, about a fifth of the Cylon race had lost their minds in the stream resulting in the boxing of those individual units.

It was on one of these occasions that Dianna found herself not alone. At first she thought it was another Cylon Model, however without an interface medium, there was no way another Cylon could share her consciousness. That was when the Angel appeared.

It was radiant with beauty beyond comparison and it looked down upon her as she sat at the edge of the stream. The Angels wings were comprised of strands of glowing energy, and these energy strands coalesced into hands that reach down into the flowing fragments. It then raised its cupped hands to Dianna, and Dianna could see the fragment before her. Shocked and Afraid, but not willing to question the will of an Angel, Dianna reached out her hand and touched the fragment.

Immediately her surroundings changed and Dianna found herself on the bridge of a clearly Alien design. It was odd that the others on the bridge were obviously human, however they wore clothing that was clearly not military or even civilian in nature. The clothing was somewhat out of place and extremely form fitting leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. It appeared to be made up of thousands of interwoven scales that gleamed a brilliant white, very much reflecting the feel of the bridge. On one of the arms of a nearby Alien Dianna could make out a symbol, it was that symbol that changed everything. A triangle with a circle on top, it was the ancient Kobolian symbol of Earth.

Dianna found herself walking up to a crystalline platform and her hands danced across its surface. In response the entire far wall of the bridge changed revealing a map of the galaxy and a clear outline of the vessels course. The image seemed to panic the humans around her, and before she realized it the ship began to shudder. Turning her attention back to the display Dianna understood why, the image had zoomed in to the ships current location and its course outline had turned red as it terminated on what looked like a planet.

In the blink of an eye the display melted away and revealed a full view of the ships exterior, and there was no doubt, the ship was fast approaching a planet. The rate of acceleration towards the planet was unfathomable to Dianna, even though she could feel no acceleration, the planet was growing at a rate that should have smooshed the entire crew into a fine paste, if not ripped apart an entire basestar.

She finally noted a look of despair fall over the nearby humans, and they each walked to the rear of the bridge where a row of a dozen cylindrical chambers stood. Dianna found herself stepping into the chamber and felt a sudden chill as her vision iced over, all the while experiencing the ill-fated crash of the Alien ship before finally returning to the stream.

This single experience had changed Dianna's life, and today would bare the fruit of her arduous journey. For 8 years she had travelled with a small contingent of Basestars and raiders, following what she could remember of the Earth ships path. And now she was on the lifeless planetoid, over 2km beneath its surface where Cylons had spent 6 months excavating the ship.

The ship was a remarkable piece of engineering, its entire hull had remained completely intact during the crash. Isotopic scans put the age of the ship, or at least the age of its surroundings at 197 years. If the humans of Earth could manufacture this level of technology, she shuddered to think what having them as an enemy would be like.

"Well I guess you found your prize" A four shouted sarcastically from behind Dianna.

"I told you it would be worth it" Dianna retorted turning to find her companions, one of each model save the number 1 who had taken his own life 2 years into the expedition out of boredom, while still within range of the resurrection network.

"I always had faith in you" Number five smiled walking up and standing next to Dianna, he was always a suck up.

"Of course you did, and now we can share in the marvel of Earth's technology" Dianna smiled.

"Really?" a number six stepped forward "From my understanding, this ship survived crash landing on this planet's surface without a scratch. The Centurians have been trying to cut their way in using every manner of cutting tool we have available including a laser torch. Something about the hull seems to absorb every form of impact we throw at it"

Dianna knew Six was right, she had read the same reports, but then the most obvious solution presented itself. This was a ship after all, and after all no one could walk through walls, the creators would have needed a docking hatch or door to get in or out. Following this line of reasoning she had the Centurians scan every square inch of the ship, and using a bit of logic she found a clue to the puzzle. It had brought her to this exact location, a location near the top of the forward spear shaped head of the vessel.

Calmly she approached what the Centurian scan's had revealed, a small recess, barely 2 centimeters in diameter but large enough to insert a finger. As she pushed her finger in she felt a physical click, as she withdrew the finger she knew she had triggered something wonderful. Stepping back she watched in earnest as the seamless metal split right down the center of the insert. Whoever had designed this ship had crafted the exterior to look as though it were a single piece of metal, however now that the seam had presented itself, all around the ship similar seams began to appear and the sound of metal retracting began to reverberating across the very thin atmosphere within the excavation dome.

"Battle Armor" Four gasped as the external armor now gave way, revealing a far less streamlined vessel. Without its armor the ship looked somewhat fragile with row after row of windows dotting its hull and even what looked like an observation dome directly atop the bridge.

The exact point where Dianna had placed here finger now resembled an airlock, something which the Cylons were very familiar with. It did not take them much longer to open the outer airlock and finally step into the ship's interior.

Dianna was the first to step into the airlock, and what greeted her was simply amazing. Upon her first step Dianna realized that they had entered through the bridges emergency docking port, and immediately every light on the bridge lit up.

* * *

Adama rounded a corner and came up to the last bulkhead that protected the Primary control room. Behind the bulkhead he could hear a high pitch whine that peeked his curiosity. Entering his access codes the bulkhead parted giving way to an unimaginable sight. All around the massive 100 meter circular room, control panels and displays were vanishing in pulses of flash light. Moments later new unfamiliar consoles that gleamed white with crystalline plates replaced them, all the while the screeching high pitched sound permeated the air, complimenting the light.

Adama could only stand in shocked silence for almost 5 minutes before he was interrupted by Lee, his son.

Lee had followed his Father, extremely curious after the meeting with Aaron, when he saw his father round the corner and then just freeze in shock, he didn't know what to think. And now he knew why his father had stopped, the sight of the Control room being pulled apart and reshaped was just stunning. The dome shaped ceiling, where status monitors had hung down, had been completely removed, now replaced with a white solid looking dome. The walls were being replaced with an unfamiliar alloy that radiated a diffused light, and the dozen or so terminals that now encircled the lower tier where the Dradus table would have been, glowed with power. The Dradus table had been replaced with what appeared to be a 10 meter in diameter circular sheet of glass while below the glass thousands of crystal rods protruded, each glowing with a rainbow of different colors.

* * *

Kara had been following this "yellow brick road" for several minutes now, all the while she marveled at the sheer size of the ship. From the outside, the ships profile was very thin, giving it the impression of having very small decks, however internally the decks were incredibly spacious, in fact, maybe even a little too spacious. The Ceiling overhead was easily five meters high and the width of the corridors were a far too generous 10 meters wide. Even one of the elevators she was forced to enter, could easily accommodate 15 or more people, and traveled with absolutely no acceleration or even time. No sooner had she entered the elevator, than the door reopened and she found herself facing a completely different corridor from which she had entered.

As she neared the end of her Journey she spotted Aaron in the distance, he had clearly not seen her as he seemed to be standing over some kind of pod nestled at the rear of the bridge.

Aaron could sense Kara's approach, but chose to ignore it, his current thoughts were of David whose slumbering form captivated his entire attention. The pod had done its job, and for the most part had completely regenerated David's body, leaving the impression of a gentle slumber and not the life threatening ordeal he was actually facing.

Kara stepped up beside Aaron and placed a consoling arm around the man "Is he going to be all right?" she questioned.

Aaron shook his head slightly and placed a hand on the pods glass. Immediately the status report projected across the glass, translated into Caprican standard for Kara's benefit. "The damage was more extensive than the initial scans revealed, his chances of recovery are almost zero" Aaron admitted as a tear rolled down his cheek.

Aaron removed his hand from the glass and pushed on another button that caused the life pod to suddenly jerk backwards and then upright before nestling into the wall where it joined the half dozen empty pods that lined the rear of the bridge.

Kara was speechless, David had been one of her closest friends, they had flown together on more missions than she could recount and he always had her back. As she watched the pod join the other pods her eyes grew wide in shock as David's body suddenly became encased in ice. "What are you doing to him?" she questioned as the ice completed its formation leaving behind a frozen Popsicle.

"I've placed him in stasis, maybe by the time we return to Alliance space and find a proper medical facility, they'll have improved neural regeneration technology to the point where he can be saved" Aaron explained "Even if it takes a thousand years, I'll wait for him"

"A thousand years" a voice suddenly questioned from behind the pair, immediately causing Kara and Aaron to turn around. Six had been watching the pair intently and had remained silent this whole time, but the realization had never dawned on Six that a species could live for a thousand years, even an artificial one such as Aaron. "How old are you?"

Aaron was caught a little off guard by the question and took a moment before he replied "By Caprican standard time, which by the way is almost identical to Earth standard, I am Two Hundred and ten years old" he explained.

Kara was completely shocked at this revelation, though she had received a mission briefing from Lee about Aaron being an Alien from some faction called the Alliance, her mind couldn't quite grasp the realization that he was in fact an Alien, and a very Old alien by the sound of it.

"Would my people have life spans as long as yours?" Six questioned, ignoring Kara's perplexed looks.

Aaron stepped forward "Not only your people" he turned then turned to Kara "The Colonial's will have equally long lives" he finished.

"How would that be possible" Kara questioned.

"Two Hundred and eighty-three years ago, the Tau'ri underwent a program called disclosure. At first there were some economic and political fallout which lasted all of 3 years, but Earth emerged united when realization of the threats our Galaxy faced, finally dawned on our civilization. You see human science had evolved on its own, unpolluted by technology of the ancients or Asgard, Goauld or even the lords of Kobol such as your species. We developed lines of biological science and technology that many other races in the galaxy had bypassed entirely because of the technological influence of these races. Because of this, a science known as Telimere rejuvenation had been developed on Earth. After disclosure the science was given a boon by Asgard and Ancient technology and a Telimere regeneration therapy was created that essentially made our people biologically immortal. Unlike the Asgard, we had no need to create new bodies, we could simply stop the bodies we currently have, from aging"

Both women stood speechless before Aaron. Aaron however, did not have much time left. He had already dispatched a stone to each of the ship captains within the fleet and had asked that in 2 minutes, they activate the stones. He had also kept watch on the Anchorage where preparations had been completed. Quickly he turned to Kara and handed her a white stone "put this to your chest in two minutes" he stated and then quickly pushed past six to access the ships primary control console

* * *

Aaron arrived in a flash of light, at the heart of the new command center within the Anchorage startling both William and Lee Adama.

The command center was now pure white with light radiating from the walls eliminating any sense of shadow. The center itself was now comprised of tiered circles. The lowest tier was 20 meters in diameter, the central 10 meters of it filled with the glass table surrounded by consoles. The next tier was 2 meters higher than the bottom tier and encircled the lower tier with a radius of 40 meters. The 3rd tier which again rose 2 meters above the second tier had a radius of 60 meters, and finally the last tier where the entrance stood had a radius of 100 meters with a domed ceiling rising high above it and made of the same white light radiating material. Upon each tier stood banks of terminals all facing towards the center, along with what looked like hundreds of chairs all facing the center.

"What is this" Adama questioned, bounding toward Aaron on the lower tier.

"This Admiral, is your new command center" Aaron smiled and placed a hand on a console next to him that caused it to begin projecting holographic windows above the crystal. The text that flowed showed status reports in Caprican standard, and from a glance he could tell it was an inventory report of the Galactica.

Lee pushed past his father and reached out to touch the console, inadvertently brushing Aarons hand in the process, and to his surprise Aarons hand was solid. "You're actually here?" he questioned, not waiting for a response before hugging the man.

"I am" Aaron smiled accepting the hug.

Lee broke away "How's David doing?" he questioned.

Aaron shook his head "there's nothing further I can do, I've placed him in stasis, maybe in time we'll be able to revive him" he said solemnly just as a flash of light deposited two females right behind Aaron, both of whom Lee was familiar with.

"What the FRACK" Kara shouted, she had just placed the stone on her chest when she finally found herself next to Aaron in an amazingly odd room.

Before anyone could reply however Dozens of figures began appear all around the room, many of whom Admiral Adama was familiar with.

The room was in discourse as no one had expected to find themselves in the newly built command center. Several captains had discovered that removing the device on their chest instantly brought them back to their ships, where they later learnt that they had not traveled anywhere.

"Everyone Please Calm down" Aaron's voice boomed across the command center, almost immediately the room went dead silent though Admiral Cain and the President Laura had already made their way down to the group.

"What is this place" Cain questioned as she came to a stop before Aaron with the President shortly behind her.

"This is the Command Center at the heart of the Ragnor Anchorage" Aaron explained, as his words trailed off, the table at the heart of the command center came to life shooting beams of light up into the empty space above, and radiating as far as the curved ceiling. Immediately a holographic image of the Anchorage took shape with every ship in orbit or docked nearby. The view was so massive that it included Aarons ship that sat at the edge of the entrance to the storm. "This place is accessible to all captains via the stones you are wearing. Though you are not physically here, your projection will appear so long as you are within range. Also please remember that everything you say whilst here can be heard by anyone near you on your ships"

Everyone around Aaron had been overcome with shock as their minds tried to process the enormity of what was happening right now. This technology was like nothing anyone could have fathomed, many of the gathered captains and Admirals had taken seats and soon found themselves surrounding with holographic menus and images of their ships.

"This is amazing" Lara gasped taking her eyes from the view above her and looking to Aaron "With this Centre we can coordinate the entire fleets movements"

"There's only one flaw in that" Admiral Cain interrupted "This is a space station, not a starship, and we cannot hide here forever"

Aaron nodded in agreement, his mind instantly linking with the projector and above the Colonials heads the view changed to one of the station. "I've replaced the stations power source, and fitted it with an FTL drive compatible with your method of propulsion. It will be able to jump" he announced bringing some comfort to the president who was already worried about the many civilian ships that were not capable of jumping. "The jump drive is calibrated to carry along anything within 1000 meters of its hull, that however, is a discussion for another time, for now we have a serious problem" Aaron continued causing the map to zoom out to one of the local cluster.

"I am tracking 30 Basestars converging on this point" he announced as 30 very small battlestars highlighted and an overlay showed their Jump trajectory heading straight for the Anchorage.

"You're afraid we won't be able to secure the front?" William questioned.

"No, protecting the entrance will be easy, protecting the incoming civilian armada will be the difficult part" Aaron replied, allowing the hologram to focus on the entrance to the storm and revealing an armada of ships highlighted in green, making their way to the eye. The overlaid trajectory clearly showed an arrival time of 3 hours, and passed right through the estimated arrival locations of the base stars.

"How many ships?" Lara asked.

"432 Civilian ships, 147 military vessels and over 1724 vipers" Aaron reported "Only 20 percent of the civilian ships are capable of jumping which makes them sitting ducks in a Cylon shooting gallery"

"We have 3 battle groups, if we can coordinate with the incoming military ships, we can catch the Cylons in a cross fire" Adama Proposed, his mind absorbing the data.

"That may not be enough" Another captain pointed out, his attention focused on a small holographic window that floated above a nearby console "if this is right, the Cylons are bringing in over a hundred Base stars from across the Colonies. They could easily jump behind and nuke the civilian fleet while we're bogged down in a gun fun"

"First things first, we have to protect the entrance" Helena interrupted, as the commanders of the military ships crowded down towards the lower tier, while the civilian captains remained on the upper tiers yet still within earshot of the deliberations bellow.


End file.
